NACFAM Issues Strategic Agenda for Advanced Manufacturing

Increased cooperation among the private sector, federal and state governments, education, and the nonprofit community will be critical for sustaining our current economic boom, according to the National Coalition for Advanced Manufacturing (NACFAM), in its recent white paper, Smart Prosperity: An Agenda for Enhancing Productivity Growth. The plan is the culmination of the 20-month Advanced Manufacturing Leadership Forum, organized by NACFAM to provide strategic guidance and direction for policy development efforts. 

After discussion of the role increases in manufacturing productivity has played in the strong economy, Smart Prosperity focuses on three key elements to continued growth: national research investment, workforce skills development and enhancing the small- and medium-sized manufacturing enterprise supply chains. The paper outlines a six-point policy agenda: 

• increasing the federal commitment to research in the engineering and physical sciences, with an emphasis on basic manufacturing science and technology; 
• expanding private commitment to longer-term, higher-risk research by encouraging state tax credits for collaborative research or other mechanisms to promote collaboration; 
• building an industry-led nationwide system of skill standards, assessment, and certification; 
• adopting two federal technical training tax credits for entry-level and incumbent workers 
• accelerating the use of advanced technologies and techniques by small- and medium-sized manufacturers by expanding, refocusing, and leveraging manufacturing extension services; and, 
• overcoming software interoperability problems by stimulating development of voluntary open, business-led standards for e-manufacturing 

Copies of Smart Prosperity: An Agenda for Enhancing Productivity Growth are available for $39 from NACFAM. More information, including a six-page synopsis of the report, can be found at: http://www.nacfam.org